Nolan said Wilson didn't tell police who did it. The next year, Avalos told a woman he was dating "about killing a black kid and paralyzing a white kid" at a park, and who was with him, Nolan said.

When the woman started dating Lozano, she told Avalos she loved the Marine corporal and that he was a better man, according to the prosecutor.

On Dec. 19, 2001, Lozano went to his girlfriend's apartment in Desert Hot Springs, "and when he left the next morning, at 6 a.m., he was shot dead less than half a mile away, in his car," Nolan said.

Avalos and his associates went to Lozano's girlfriend's residence and "waited and waited and waited until 6 in the morning, until he was vulnerable in his car, unable to run, and shot him," Nolan alleged.

A man who knew Lozano and who was on trial for murder gave authoritiesinformation about both the 1994 and 2001 shootings, resulting in Avalos' arrestin 2006 in connection with the serviceman's slaying.

Macher said Wilson told authorities for 12 years that he didn't know who shot him in 1994.

"Only in 2006, while he was in prison, did he change his story, and he changed his story because there was probably some benefit in it for him," Macher said in his opening statement.

Avalos' other attorney, Bill Dittman, said items found at Avalos' residence didn't match the evidence at the crime scene. And Avalos told authorities he was in San Fernando with his daughter at the time Lozano was shot, Dittman said. "If in December 2001 (Avalos' ex-girlfriend) is telling police Emilio Avalos killed Henry Lozano ... then it becomes, why is he not charged in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005? The reason why is there's not physical evidence Mr. Avalos was involved in Jahi Collins' murder, involved in Henry Lozano's murder," Dittman said.

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